RULER at Yale

Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

The research team at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence uses
rigorous methodologies to better understand how emotions matter in the
lives of individuals and institutions. The Center– previously the
Health, Emotion, and Behavior Laboratory – has been conducting
innovative research on emotions since the late 1980’s, a time when
scientists were primarily concerned with cognition and viewed emotions
as a distraction. The Center’s work diverged from mainstream views by
asserting that emotions matter in positive ways. Rather than derailing
cognitive processes, this work proposed, emotions can enhance them and
predict important outcomes in their own right. In fact, our emotional
systems are essential to who we are and have undeniable implications for
our ability to navigate life.

Emotions Matter. Emotions drive learning, decision-making,
creativity, relationships, and health. The Yale Center for Emotional
Intelligence uses the power of emotions to create a more effective and
compassionate society. The Center conducts research and teaches people
of all ages how to develop their emotional intelligence.

The Anchors of Emotional Intelligence are evidence-based tools
designed to enhance the emotional intelligence of school leaders,
teachers and staff, and students and their families. RULER includes four
primary tools: the Charter, Mood Meter, Meta-Moment, and Blueprint.
Each is based on scientific research and helps children and adults
develop their emotional intelligence skills.

There are 4 Anchors which we use in RULER; the Charter, the Mood
Meter, the Meta-Moment, and the Blueprint. Each serves an important part
of the puzzle towards building Emotional Intelligence.

The Charter is a living document that gives the students and staff a
voice in how they want to feel throughout the year. Each year the
classroom and our staff identifies the feelings they want when at
school, how they are going to ensure they happen, and what they’ll do if
they don’t feel that way. The Charter provides a chance for groups to
build consensus around the way they want to feel, it is not a list of
rules but a proclamation for how the groups wants to function. It is
modified throughout the year as the class changes and grows.

The Mood Meter is a tool that helps us recognize and label our
emotions. The Mood-Meter is a graph where the x-axis is how pleasant
we’re feeling and the y-axis is our energy level. So when we’re high
energy and feeling pleasant we’re in the yellow, when we’re low energy
and feeling unpleasant we’re in the blue. Students plot themselves
throughout the day to help them recognize how they’re feeling. This is
great time for the teacher to be able to check in with students as well,
as is can clue the teacher in to anyone who is upset, anxious or
frustrated. Where would you plot yourself? There’s an app for that! On
both Android and Apple devices.

The Meta-Moment is a tool to help us learn what to do when we are
triggered by something. We learn recognize how our body is
reacting(physiological response), to stop, think about our “Best Self”,
and then find a strategy that can help us. Have you asked your child
what their “Best Self” is? It doesn’t have to be static, if they say
they can’t remember what they wrote in class, they can think of new
words to describe themselves.

The Blueprint is a tool that helps us resolve conflict. We can use it
after a conflict has occurred and we want to work through and try and
understand more about why it happened. We can also use it proactively;
when we know we have something coming up that might cause us stress or
anxiety. Thinking through the questions can help us be better prepared
to handle the situations well. The Blueprint is a tool that also helps build
empathy as it asks you to think about how the other person felt during
the encounter. Are there times in your day that maybe a Blueprint would
help resolve any conflicts?

Additional Resources and Links

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is
the nation’s leading organization advancing the development of
academic, social and emotional competence for all students. Our mission
is to help make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral
part of education from preschool through high school. Through research,
practice and policy, CASEL collaborates to ensure all students become
knowledgeable, responsible, caring and contributing members of society.

We create research-based social-emotional learning materials to help
children succeed in school and in life. We are a nonprofit. And we’re
helping create a world in which children can grow up to be peaceful,
kind, responsible citizens.

In the News

Bellevue Schools Teach Emotional Smarts - Seattle Times

"Studies have shown that students in RULER schools are less anxious,
better behaved, more attentive and more independent — with greater
leadership skills.", says the Seattle Times in an article discussing the
current implementation of the RULER method in the Bellevue public
elementary schools.

Once a small corner of education theory, S.E.L. has gained traction
in recent years, driven in part by concerns over school violence,
bullying and teen suicide. But while prevention programs tend to focus
on a single problem, the goal of social-emotional learning is grander:
to instill a deep psychological intelligence that will help children
regulate their emotions.

Additional Reading and Research

Books by Marc Brackett, Ph.D.

Marc Brackett is the author, co-author, and editor of over 100
scholarly publications and the developer of two university courses on
Emotional Intelligence—one for undergraduates at Yale University and one
for educators at Teachers College, Columbia University (co-developed
with Robin Stern). His research focuses on the role of emotional
intelligence in learning, decision making, relationship quality, and
mental health; the measurement of emotional intelligence, best practices
for bringing emotional intelligence into large organizations, and the
influences of emotional intelligence training on student and educator
effectiveness, bullying prevention, and school climate.

Daniel Goleman is an internationally known psychologist who lectures
frequently to professional groups, business audiences, and on college
campuses. As a science journalist Goleman reported on the brain and
behavioral sciences for The New York Times for many years. Apart from
his books on emotional intelligence, Goleman has written books on topics
including self-deception, creativity, transparency,meditation, social
and emotional learning, eco-literacy and the ecological crisis. Goleman
is a co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional
Learning (www.casel.org), originally at the Yale Child Studies Center
and now at the University of Illinois at Chicago. CASEL’s mission
centers on bringing evidence-based programs in emotional literacy to
schools worldwide.

The Emmy Award-winning team of Vulcan Productions and the producers
of NOVA have created a three-part series that explores improving our
social relationships, learning to cope with depression and anxiety, and
becoming more positive, resilient individuals. The series was produced
by Kunhardt McGee Productions. Harvard psychologist and best-selling
author of Stumbling on Happiness, Professor Daniel Gilbert, talks with
experts about the latest science on what makes us “tick” and how we can
find support for the emotional issues we all face.

Learning is a lifelong adventure. It starts in your mother's womb,
accelerates to high speed in infancy and childhood, and continues
through every age, whether you're actively engaged in mastering a new
skill, intuitively discovering an unfamiliar place, or just sleeping,
which is fundamental to helping you consolidate and hold on to what
you've learned. You are truly born to learn around the clock.

The number one problem facing many high-school students: They haven't
been taught how to learn. Because our current educational system
focuses on test results, on making sure students memorize the facts and
material needed to pass standardized tests, few students are
deliberately taught about learning — about developing the particular
mind-set and using the specific skills that can help them graduate with
exemplary grades and an exemplary mind.

Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator - video lectures

Teaching is more than a job. It's a responsibility —one of the
greatest responsibilities in civilized society. Teachers lay bare the
mysteries of the world to us. They train our minds to explore, to
question, to investigate, to discover. They ensure that knowledge is not
lost or forgotten but is instead passed on to future generations. And
they shape our lives in limitless ways, both inside and outside of the
classroom.